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A second lawsuit has been filed by states objecting to the Obama administration’s call for schools to avoid discriminating against transgender students, including the recommendation that trans students be allowed to use restrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity.
Ten states led by Nebraska filed the suit in federal court in that state, the Associated Press reports. The other states in the suit are Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Eleven other states, led by Texas and joined by some school districts and public officials, filed a similar suit in May. Both name the U.S. departments of Education, Justice, and Labor as defendants, plus the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The new suit uses much of the same language as the previous one and contends that federal government departments and agencies do not have the right to interpret the law as they did, declaring that a prohibition on sex discrimination in education also bans discrimination based on gender identity. The sex discrimination clause is in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
I knew this was coming, but it really hurts to see ND in that list.
The federal guidance document on treatment of trans students, issued in May, is not legally binding, but it does advise schools on how to comply with their legal obligations to students. Schools that do not comply may lose federal funding.
The new filing means that nearly half the U.S. states are challenging the Obama administration’s guidance, and doing so based on a “1972 understanding of sex,” notes Zach Ford at ThinkProgress.
They can’t go home to the 1950s, but they’ll take it as close as they can get.
Full story here.
They can’t go home to the 1950s, but they’ll take it as close as they can get.
The imagined promised land in which everything was good and everyone knew their place.
Only 1972, huh? The poor dears. They’d probably take it right back to the Bronze Age, if you gave them the chance. :/
The extreme radical right is shooting themselves in the foot. With a machine gun.
A decade ago, there were only a small handful of states that recognized gay marriage. So the radical right pushed through laws or referendums in multiple states to outlaw gay marriage. Which engendered lawsuits. Which led to more and more and more states in which gay marriage was legal. Which guaranteed a court response. Which led to the USSC ruling opening up marriage to all consenting adults.
Now, transgendered people are the target (well, so is Target, but. . . ). Laws in North Carolina and other states, plus the federal guidelines, have set up yet another court case. Which will, the USSC actually looks at the Constitution when they make their eventual ruling, will enshrine human rights for transgendered individuals into US federal case law.
HEY, ASSHOLES: You are on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of morality, and the wrong side of the Constitution of the United States of America.
Ogvorbis:
Eventually, anyway. This is obviously a desperate gasp to keep bigotry enshrined in law, but as a delaying tactic, it’s effective. In the meantime, people will continue to be harmed while this nonsense is bound up in the courts.
1972 BCE, I presume…
Some sources indicate the Karnak Temple Complex in ancient Egypt was started about that time, which is certainly much groovier that dead-carpenter-nailed-to-a-tree-ism.
Caine:
Sorry. I should have thought of that. My privilege is showing. Sorry.
Ogvorbis @ 6:
No need for sorry. It’s a dastardly tactic on the part of bigots, but they are running scared now, and they literally don’t have anything to lose.
Neh?
:)
rq:
Sorry. My bad.
Yeah…this kind of thing discourages me from going back to even visit family. I don’t think I could ever live there again.
The article did not say, but let me take a guess: the attorneys general for those states are republican?